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something to keep me occupied.
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Generation Kill, Evan Wright June
12, 2004 Wright
recounts his experiences riding with a Marine recon group that was one
of the first to penetrate deep in to Iraq. He has a good eye for
the nuances and details that contribute to the effective presentation
of a person. Even though the course of the larger events is now
known, the subtle impressions of the soldiers in the field are
interesting to understand. Most refreshing is the absence of the
programmed pieces that are recited by any soldier that is interviewed
on television. Most of the military members seen on television
invariably spout the common party line - "I am here to do my job and
follow my orders." The title is a bit deceptive. It
certainly led me to expect some whiny-ass Village Voice bit about some
poor kids who were snookered by some recruiting agent's tales of
world travel and marketable skills. These soldiers know why they
are there and what they must do
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Dry, Augusten Burroughs poorme poorme
poorme poorme poorme poorme poorme poorme
please take pity I can't help myself please take pity I can't help
myself
whine whine whine whine whine whine whine whine whine whine
Ugh. A reminder not to waste time on drunks. |
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Sellevision, Augusten Burroughs This is
a fun beach book. Burroughs should stick to fiction. His sly wit
is much more enjoyable in a comedic parody than when it is mixed with
his self-loathing pronouncements. |
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Running With Scissors, Augusten
Burroughs This one was funny, though. |
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Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld. Fall 2004. The
dumpy nerd girl sits on her ass and watches the world go by.
The book is seriously overhyped. Some of the quotes liken
her as 'the next Holden Caulfield'. No.
The characters are flat, and there is far less insight into a
school than what I hoped to see. I read it in several sittings
not because I was enthralled, but because I wanted to get through it
and move on to other things. I suspect a publisher saw a
marketing opportunity, and rushed this into print. Should have
sent it back for more work instead. Wait for the paperback and get it at the used book store. Or
the library.
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Cloud Atlas. Early Fall 2004.
Wow! This was fun. This guy takes the idea of a 'narrative
arc' to whole new level. Definitely worth the time. |
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Juiced, Jose Canseco The first half of the book is
tedious, as Canseco feels compelled to demonstrate that he really
is a nice guy. A fair amount of whining about how the press
'mistreated' him. The latter third redeems the book, as he
points out the giant elephant in MLB's living room. He
lists a lot of names, along with times and places. This is a
very candid presentation of what has been happening in baseball for
the past 5-10 years. No-one, not the owners, the unions, the
players, the advertisers, no-one wants to admit that the stars are all
using steroids. Sure, in the spring of 2005 they bounced a few
guys out for failing the tests. An outfielder on an also-ran
team like Colorado. Yeah right. really impressive
enforcement mechanism, guys. |
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A Few Corrections, Brad Leithauser
Leithauser starts with something that seems like a gimmick, but ends
up producing a very interesting book. Each chapter begins with
an obituary of a man who has recently died. The ensuing chapter
then reveals something about the man that was not immediately evident,
and at times hidden from the public's knowledge. The subsequent
chapter opens with the original obituary, but corrected to include the
information revealed in the previous chapter.
Leithauser does an excellent job of gradually unfolding the layers
of not one but two characters, the 'subject' of the narrator's
research and the narrator himself. This is a nice slice of
Americana, refreshingly removed from the effete east-coast
intellectualism that bogs down much of American writing today.
Our hero is not perfect; he's dead, so he cannot change. |
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Naked Airport, Alastair
Gordon Nicely written history of the airport. Gordon presents
a well-researched and informative review of airports in the Americas
and Europe. I particularly enjoyed learning of the trends in
airport design, and how the thinking of the day about passenger
movement influenced the buildings used to accommodate travelers.
Airports 40 years ago were architectural statements about the
reach of man and the contracting earth. Now, they are structures to
maximise throughput in processing passengers. I guess it's no
surprise that cabin crews now refer to passengers as 'self-loading
cargo'. |
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Friday Night Lights, H.G.
Bissinger A week after I started reading this book, there was a big
flap about an ABC TV program entitled "Welcome to the
Neighborhood" This program had a series of candidates who
stood to win a free home in a planned suburban development. The
future neighbors would discuss and vote on who would win the house.
Two gay guys with an adopted child, Koreans, Wiccans. The
families making the decisions were for the majority white and
Christian. I'm sure they all went to their CHRISTIAN (Baptists
are too liberal) church and prayed, "Pleeeeeeeeeease baby Jesus, don't
let any faggots, gooks, Mexicans or freakouts in our neighborhood.
Why can't the TV show give us a white family?" And then they
went home happy and content because they are full of Grace.
No surprise that this suburb was in Texas, a neighborhood very
much like the one that produced the Permian Mojo football.
Bisinger is quite candid in is portrayal of this community, to an
extent that the book caused rather an upset in Odessa when it was
published. Buy hey, when your school spends $20,000 to charter a
737 for a football game trip while the English department must suffice
with but one computer, you should be able to bear a little criticism. |
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Ice Station, Matthew Reilly I
found this in the laundry room of the building. I was looking
for a time-waster, and this certainly met that expectation.
This guy grew up watching action movies, and has not quite figured
how to reverse-engineer an action movie back into prose. He
clearly has a distinct visual image of what is happening here, it's
just that he does not translate his ideas well to paper.
If something is really important with action he puts it in
italics.
If we're supposed to get really caught up in the action, we an
exclamation point!
If it's really important, and we're gonna get really carried
away, we get italics and lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The proofreader phoned this one in. Typos and grammatical
errors abound.
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Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
I needed something to cleanse the palate after Ice Station. The real
pathos here is Charles Bovary, for being asleep at the switch and
letting matters get out of hand. He got what he deserved
in the end.
Flaubert wields his pen well in his characterisations. It's
just hard to imagine such foppish behavior having any grounding in
this day and age.
PRE-NUP PRE-NUP PRE-NUP. Separate accounts for everything! |
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